Nori

I never cease to be amazed after blocking lace. It makes such a difference. Nori was pretty even while on the needles, something that's not been true with lace in my experience.  

Squenchy, but pretty.

I blocked it last night, and I really stretched it to get it to be close to the measurements listed on the pattern (60" x 25")

Nori (mine ravelled here),

knit in Dream in Color Starry, Emerald Darkness colorway (I think)

Look how pretty the stitches became.

Crap. I see a mistake. Please ignore it.

It's drape-y and delightful. This yarn has a little thread of silver going through it, and I think that makes this a little fancier than it would be in plain yarn. I rarely need fancy, but I don't mind rocking a fancy shawl with jeans. (In fact, I believe everything should be rocked with jeans.)

I mentioned it before: This project has lace on every side. Note to non-knitter-of-lace: Often in lace projects, the right side (the side facing you) has fancy lace stitches and the back side is plain. So you get a break and get to do something easy every other row. This pattern had fancy lace stitches on every row, so you had to pay attention all the time.

If I can do this, I certainly can make that cabled wrap. I have (once again) cast on. Onward and upward.

They're Not All Winners

Pinterest is to blame for many, many failed crafty attempts. Today, I had my own.

 

The inspiration for these stars is here. Cute, yes? Looks easy, yes?

 

I started by printing out a star shape and then nailing it to the back of a wooden frame. It would be much better to have nails at all ten points rather than just five, but the frame wasn't solid and I couldn't find another piece of scrap wood. (The small nail holes won't be seen from the front of the frame, so it's not ruined.)

 

Then I stretched metal florist wire around the nails, bending it until it looked approximately the shape of a star.

Then I used scrap yarn to wrap around it randomly.

You see that happened. I couldn't get the star to stay in its original shape. Part of it is because the wire is pretty flexible, and part of it is because I couldn't figure out a good way to fuse the ends of the wire together. I tried to wrap them around one another, but it wasn't strong enough to hold the join.

They can't all be winners. I think I'll go back to knitting on the shawl now.

Photography Light Box

Our world is covered in snow.

I was fortunate enough to get a snow day. Andrew had to go to work, so I shoveled the drive by myself.

shoveling = excellent workout

After shoveling, I decided to try to build a photography light box. I've had the instructions on my Pinterest board aptly named Someone else make for me! I don't think anyone was going to make it for me, so I decided I'd better do it myself. Here's how I did it:

1. Bring home printer box from work. Cut all four flaps off one end. Cut rectangular hole on two sides. (I also cut off two flaps from the other end, but I think you should not. I just got overexcited with the box cutter.)

2. Tape flaps of one end together. Get Nocturne Inspection.

3. Tape white tissue paper over the holes in the two sides.

 

4. Put white posterboard inside box for background. I think I need another piece, but I don't know how to place them so I won't have seams showing up in all the photos.

 

5. Put a lamp on each side of the box. This step needs work. I may need to look for some inexpensive lights that a) are more maneuverable, and b) don't leave us with dark rooms elsewhere in the house.

A lamps shaped like the Eiffel Tower is not necessary, but it does add a bit of je ne sais quoi to the project.

That's it!

I really thought I started with a big box, but it's not all that big when I tried to put half a shawl in it.

Does it look any different that my non-light box pictures? I'm not really sure that it does. Maybe stronger lights on each side will help.

A photograph of a skein of yarn does look pretty good though. I have some tweaking to do, but I think this light box thing is going to work out.

Nori Break

I frogged the cabled wrap... again. I'm taking a break from it and knitting this:

Nori (mine ravelled here),

knit in Dream in Color Starry, Emerald Darkness colorway (I think)

I have one more repeat before I begin decreasing. (It's now bigger than it was in this photo.) It's going well.

Now, if you look at the Nori pattern and then you look at the cabled wrap, something will become immediately clear: Nori is more difficult. It has a 12-row lace pattern with lacy things happening on every row. It's not crazy-hard, but I have to pay attention. I've done a lot of tinking (unknitting) because I got distracted and screwed up somewhere along the row.

The cabled wrap, on the other hand, is basically 2x2 rib. Every 12 rows you have some cabling action, but other than that its just boring rib done on skinny yarn. 

My problem knitting this must be mental. I'm hoping that completing something more difficult like Nori will convince the scared knitter living in my head that I am perfectly capable knitting the cabled wrap with no further problem.

Either that or I'll need to start looking for a new pattern for two different laceweight yarns.

Begin at the Beginning

The last time I wrote about the yarn I was trying to knit into a cabled wrap, the post was titled "Dear Malabrigo Lace: Bite me."

This yarn and I have been through a lot together--not in an "I've got your back when we're behind enemy lines" sort of together. It was more of a "I AM the enemy and I will make you weep into my beautiful merino" togetherness.

Do you remember how beautiful it was?

So pretty.

Talking about this yarn hurts me deep down inside, so let's just say that I have not yet found a pattern that works.

It certainly isn't this:

Pretty pattern, but too busy in this yarn. There's no safe place to rest your eyes. It took me a long time to accept it, but this past weekend I frogged it.

Let's not talk about how difficult it is to frog. It stuck together. It took two of us. It tore into pieces. I spent a couple hours   No, let's move on.

This pattern, however, is beautiful. And so, I have begun again.

Reversible Cabled-Rib Shawl (mine ravelled here),

knit in Knit Picks' Alpaca Cloud Lace, Smoke Healther colorway

I sort of misplaced the pattern, so I rewrote it how I remember it. What could possibly go wrong?

Recess!

After Lynn's socks, I wanted something fast that didn't require much concentration. Enter ribbed socks in sportweight yarn.

Ravelled here, knit in Knit Picks Felici Sport 

in Recess (discontinued) colorway 

These are my usual ribbed socks. They have a 1x1 ribbed cuff and a 3x1 ribbed leg and top of foot. It's done over 64 stitches, and the heel flap is knit over 30. They're fast, the stripes amuse me, and I gave them to the friend who had picked out the yarn. It was like a fiber-y palette cleanser.

Now I'm ready for something that requires a bit more attention. Hello, Nori.

Lynn's Linaria Bipartita

My very good friend Lynn requested socks that were denim-y and rose. It took some searching, but I found this:

 Buffy Sock yarn, colorway Wistful

purchased from JunoFibreArts

I used a pattern from Hunter Hammersen's The Knitter's Curiosity Cabinet. The pattern is beautiful.

Linaria Bipartita socks (mine ravelled here)

It's a 16 row repeat, and it took me a long time to be able to really see the pattern. That's no fault of the pattern; I'm not particularly visual and it takes awhile before the chart really begins making sense to me.

It was definitely worth it though. The texture is very interesting and has a ton of stretch.

This is the knitting I did during our vacation. I like to believe it has good vacation-y energy in it.

Lynn's one of my closest friends and knows more about energy and healing than anyone I know. She's always willing to help me when I need to get rid of some negative energy, and that happens pretty often. May her feet be warm and may she always know how much I appreciate her!